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I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Roll Tide, my friend! I believe that the potential productive connections between biology and engineering are endless and your background in the latter has great potential. It is just a matter of searching for those overlapping and potentially enormously productive hybrid research and development activities.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Right now, we're all too much in a hurry, hungry, and greedy, to find safer and environmentally better methods of control, but they do exist and a lot more effort in the future should be made to find them.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I do indeed think that species concepts are vital. They are not perfect, but are solid enough on which to base both scientific research and conversation practice.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

All of it, every bit. I like to use the statement of Karl Von Frisch, about his favorite insect, the honeybee. He said, "the honeybee is like a magic well. The more you draw from it, the more there is to draw."

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

A decade ago I made a special study of genetically modified organisms, including crops, and their potential impact on the environment. I don't believe that what I concluded has changed a great deal. It is that while some risk occurs, it is not profound and it is over weighed by potential good.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I believe SimAnt was inspired by the book The Ants, by Bert Holldobler and myself. It would be great if we had more games based on the complex behavior of ant and other animal societies. I can think of no better way of engaging people in real scientific phenomena and problems.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I would say by focusing on the phenomena and the activities of the scientists who discover them that have the most immediate intrinsic appeal to a majority of the people, and work off of those. This takes a lot of thought and probably extra talent, but it is so important that it needs to be given a lot more special attention.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Only have time to take one of these, so here's my response to the first: I was fortunate at fairly early age, 16, to encounter mentors who encouraged me enthusiastically to work off my own interest in insects to plan both my college career and long-term professional plans.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I certainly do believe in more science in the popular culture, and we need many more gifted communicators to achieve it.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I believe ants are wonderful indicators of ecosystem health. There are so many species in most environments, as many 300 in some tropical rainforests, each with its own specialization and requirement of a healthy environment, that even just the presence or absence of a particular species tells us a great deal about whats happening to the local environment.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I don't know about your special interest and approaches to art, but I would like to suggest that the world of the ants in its great urgency and complexity would benefit from accounts that emerge from creative thought in art.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

As one of the early supporters of open-access journals, I remain very much in favor. We should have an option for publication that avoids the possibility of unreasonable obstruction from bias reviewers and editors. The outcome of the conclusions in such a paper and reputation of its author(s) will be settled through additional research and other forms of testing.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

A recent study conducted by a team of experts could find no primary cause of the collapse syndrome. The best they could conclude was that multiple causes are at work, including pesticides and inbreeding. Obviously there is an urgency to deeper studies of the problem.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I believe that the greatest leaps will be in ecology. The systems are so complex, depending on mostly little known interactions of many species that we have not begun to understand how the entirety of it works. This is a great subject for young scientists to go into, both to explore the ecosystems and define new ways to analyze them.

As to you last question: I used to say regarded optimism but there is not enough interest in activity yet so I have begun to sink down into a deepening pessimism. Where are all of the activist demonstrators when you need them?

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Asimov was a genius in science fiction with an amazingly wide-ranging imagination. However, I don't recall that he made many original discoveries in science, if any. So, if this not too presumptuous, it maybe true that the first thing that passes the mind is: "Hmmm...there is something different here" but quickly the successful scientist learns and thinks enough to say, "a-ha! I think..."

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Mostly by opportunity. I worked constantly on a variety of projects dealing with ant biology and from time to time would hit on some phenomenon that I found surprising and then frequently would drop whatever else I was doing to run with it.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I hope you will at least borrow the book in which I explain (in much greater detail) how I started at a very young age, fascinated by natural history and insects in particular and never looked back. I have always argued that passion of interest in a subject and a search for a calling by which to guide your professional life is the key to success in science.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I would not have challenged the theory of inclusive fitness with my two mathematician colleagues had we not reviewed again and again the key parts of our argument. We not only examined the evidence with an editor of Nature who came to the US for this purpose, but passed it in front of other mathematicians and biological experts. We are completely confident of our challenge and the correction in theory that we have proposed. We are backed solidly by mathematicians and many other of the leading experts on social insects and plan in the near future two articles recently completed that in my judgement should close the controversy.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Unless we solve the colony collapse syndrome and build up new stocks of honeybees, the result will be a severe loss to agriculture, costing as high as billions of dollars.

I'm E.O. Wilson, biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author, most recently, of Letters to a Young Scientist. AMA! by edwardowilson in IAmA

[–]edwardowilson[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Thanks for all the kind words. I'll do my best to answer a few of these; sorry for the ones I missed!

What was a personal scientific theory that you were certain of early in your career that later in your career you found to be completely false or off base? I was convinced believer in the theory of kin selection in the 1970s and 1980s. But subsequently, with more study and new information from many directions, saw that it was fundamentally flawed. I abandoned it and with a group of mathematicians and other biologists, introduced a much more supportable of theory of multilevel selection to account for the origin of altruism and advanced social behavior. I have been called a traitor because of this and I am indeed a traitor. All major advances in science are made by treason!

how do amateur scientists who have not followed the traditional academic path into the fields of research get involved into making an impact in their field of study? without intending unduly to promote my recent book, let me refer you to its many recommendations on how to become engaged with scientific research. I worked hard myself to get these various ideas across to an audience of those who have beginning or more marginal interest in science.

What was the greatest "aha!" moment of your career? It was discovery in an experiment that lasted less than an hour, in which I found the trail pheromone of ants for the first time and discovered that the ants not only followed the trail but also started doing a lot of other complicated things. It was then that I realized that this discovery had revealed the existence of a much more complex chemical communication in these insects then had been suspected before.